Starting the Next Book

I’ve been contemplating the new story I’m working on, fleshing out ideas. Now I have names to go with two of the characters, and an idea about their personalities that came from a free-write. I love free writing. The two things that can help break me out of a writer funk are free writing and lighting candles. Somehow writing when the candles flicker sparks the inner romantic and ideas fly onto the page. I’ve started my favorite books with a pencil and candlelight, long before PC’s were available.

I’ve written more books than I’ve published, and I haven’t truly abandoned those characters. Perhaps I’ll revisit them. For now, it’s time for the new adventure to begin. The synopsis was finished days ago. The challenge will be creating characters who charge ahead and tell me off when I try to make them do something without their approval. I love it when characters talk back to me.

Currently I’m questioning the things that I assume to be true about the story, not only to make it more interesting, but also to delve deeper into the story. Tentative character names: Rolf and Maia. The premise follows Maia into a dangerous journey of self-discovery, awareness, and a call to action that Maia really doesn’t want to answer. It will be a fantasy story, with some elements of action/adventure.

Still working out tentative titles. I’ll wait until I’ve written more of the story before throwing something out there.

I also recently joined Goodreads. It’s ambrosia for the reader. I’m in heaven with all of the succulent books that are introduced to me. A friend referred me to the site. They have author pages and promotions as well. Apparently there are quite a few options for authors to self-promote or pay for promotion on Goodreads. For the readers, they have a rating system of 5 stars. Typically I rated it as 5=loved it; 4=really liked it; 3=liked it, but their ratings are described slightly differently. I haven’t rated anything below a 3, but then again, I’m a life-long reader, and I’ve learned to pick the books I read with a certain level of interest and expectation. To each their own.

For January 5th at midnight Pacific time, the free promotion date begins for my first published work, The Protectors of Tarith by Kaye T. Sherwood.The fantasy, action/adventure, romance will be available all day for free from Amazon. The link is also under “Goodness” on my blog. I hope more people will read and enjoy it. It’s a slow climb to raise awareness, but I don’t mind. I’ll continue to craft my next story.